Tua Tagovailo, Jameis Winston, Mac Jones, Trey Lance, Dak Prescott, Zach Wilson, Baker Mayfield and Teddy Bridgewater – this is the list of starting quarterbacks that missed time this year, and it is only Week 6.

Quarterbacks are the highest scoring position in most leagues so planning for injuries to your team’s top quarterback(s) is an important part of managing your fantasy football team.

Ever since the year where my team started with Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck I have always rostered three quarterbacks in my 1-QB leagues – usually two QB1s and one QB2. This week, one manager in my league lost his fourth quarterback in five weeks, and this got me to thinking – should I handcuff my quarterbacks? If you are in a 2-QB league, you might be rostering five QBs and are thinking about this already, but how about 1-QB leagues?

The answer is, “It depends.” It depends on who the back-up is, and what type of league you are in, such as redraft or dynasty. In my dynasty league with a 24-player roster and three injured reserve spots, my quarterbacks right now are Jalen Hurts, Kyler Murray and Jacoby Brissett. Brissett will probably be benched once Deshaun Watson comes off his 11-game suspension, so I started thinking about finding a replacement for Brissett in this week’s waiver wire.

And then I thought with all the injuries many of you are likely asking similar questions. So, I put together the following chart, which shows the starter and back up of each team based on the team’s currently published depth chart, and the stats of the back-up. I have sorted it in order of the rating of the back-up player:

Team

Starting QB

Backup QB

Age

CMP

ATT

CMP%

YDS

TD

INT

RTG

NEP

Mac Jones (Q)

Bailey Zappe

23

27

36

75.0%

287

2

1

104.7

Phi

Jalen Hurts

Gardner Minshew

27

542

857

63.2%

5,969

41

12

93.9

Mia

Tua Tagovailoa (O)

Teddy Bridgewater (Q)

29

1,337

2013

66.4%

14,630

72

44

90.5

NYG

Daniel Jones

Tyrod Taylor (Q)

33

947

1545

61.3%

10,747

59

26

87.9

Ind

Matt Ryan

Nick Foles

33

1,277

2045

62.4%

14,003

82

43

87.3

Min

Kirk Cousins

Nick Mullens

27

407

630

64.6%

4,861

26

22

87.3

NO

Jameis Winston (Q)

Andy Dalton

34

3,158

5070

62.3%

35,701

228

136

87.1

Pit

Kenny Pickett

Mitch Tribisky

28

1,085

1701

63.8%

11,305

66

40

86.1

Ari

Kyler Murray

Trace McSorley

27

5

14

35.7%

102

1

0

86

Buf

Josh Allen

Case Keenum

34

1,358

2180

62.3%

14,884

78

48

85.2

LAC

Justin Herbert

Chase Daniel

36

178

261

68.2%

1,694

8

7

85

Hou

Davis Mills

Kyle Allen

26

395

626

63.1%

4,318

24

17

84.9

NYJ

Zach Wilson

Joe Flacco

37

3,862

6263

61.7%

42,170

232

147

84.1

Wsh

Carson Wentz (Q)

Taylor Heinicke

29

321

494

65.0%

3,419

22

18

84

Cle

Deshaun Watson

Jacoby Brissett

29

830

1369

60.6%

8,802

41

20

83.3

Jax

Trevor Lawrence

C.J. Beathard

28

293

599

58.7%

3,502

18

13

81.4

Chi

Justin Fields

Trevor Siemian

30

606

1029

58.9%

6,843

41

21

81.2

Sea

Geno Smith

Drew Lock

25

421

710

59.3%

4,740

25

20

79.3

Cin

Joe Burrow

Brandon Allen

30

146

260

56.2%

1,589

10

6

77.5

Det

Jared Goff

Nate Sudfeld

29

25

37

67.6%

188

1

1

77.3

Bal

Lamar Jackson

Tyler Huntley

24

125

193

64.8%

1,096

3

4

76.3

KCC

Patrick Mahomes

Chad Henne

37

1,200

2013

59.6%

13,290

60

63

76.2

GB

Aaron Rodgers

Jordan Love

23

40

67

59.7%

476

2

3

72.7

TB

Tom Brady

Blaine Gabbert

32

858

1525

56.3%

9,273

50

47

72.4

Den

Russell Wilson (Q)

Brett Rypien

26

27

42

64.3%

295

2

4

61.2

Car

Baker Mayfield (D)

PJ Walker

27

73

128

57.0%

790

2

8

54.5

LAR

Matthew Stafford

John Wolford

26

23

42

54.8%

236

0

2

51.3

LV

Derek Carr

Jarrett Stidham

26

24

48

50.0%

270

2

4

46.4

Ten

Ryan Tannehill

Malik Willis

23

1

4

25.0%

6

0

0

39.6

Dal

Cooper Rush

Will Grier

27

28

52

53.8%

228

0

4

33.2

Atl

Marcus Mariota

Desmond Ridder

23

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

SF

Jimmy Garoppolo

Brock Purdy

22

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

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Since I have Rashaad Penny moving to IR this week, it opens another spot on my roster. Since I have Hurts it makes sense for me to roster Minshew, but since it is a dynasty league, maybe I should try to grab Zappe instead, or maybe try to grab both. There is nothing exciting about Minshew, except his moustache (and that rhymes with "must stash"  - so I will take that as a sign.) Although it might not be an exciting move, if Hurts goes down that boring move could be the difference between my team going deep in the playoffs or going no where.

It’s easy to think Minshew will be available on the waiver wire next week – likely that's true. But the minute Hurts is injured, then Minshew will be a hot pick-up, even if he is only a borderline QB1/2, because many managers are already short on QB depth.

The point is, in today’s NFL, you must plan for your QB to go down. Depth is the name of the game to make it through the bye weeks and your fantasy football playoffs, and no position is more important than quarterback. For a dynasty league, you should not only have sufficient depth, but you might want to have a dart throw QB or two in development, such as Zappe.

So many will lose their playoff run because this player or that player got injured. That is the wrong way to think of it. They will lose their playoff run because they didn’t actively manage their team to build the depth they need when their top player goes down. All teams lose players. Fantasy Football is a game of chess, not checkers.

So, I hope this article helps you think about this, and the chart helps you improve your team.